Super-Resolved 3-D Satellite Lidar Imaging of Earth via Generative Diffusion Models

Spaceborne lidars are essential for monitoring Earth’s ecosystems, particularly in imaging forests, glaciers, and natural hazards. However, current satellite lidar systems, such as NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) and Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), are limited in spatial resolution and photon density, constraining their ability to capture detailed surface topography and vegetation (STV) 3-D imagery. Airborne systems, such as NASA’s G-LiHT, offer higher resolution but lack global coverage. To address these limitations, compressive satellite lidars (CS-Lidars) have been recently introduced, utilizing coded laser illumination and dynamic wavelength scanning for wide-field 3-D imaging. A novel framework, based on hyperheight data cubes (HHDCs), uses deep learning to transform sparse measurements into 3-D images, but its resolution remains constrained by the physical limitations of the instruments. This article proposes three approaches using generative diffusion models to achieve super-resolution lidar imaging, enhancing satellite data resolution. These methods involve learning conditional probabilities, guiding models via forward imaging, and leveraging high-resolution side information. The results show substantial improvements in the resolution of satellite lidar data, enabling fine-scale studies of forest structure and improving applications in forest management and environmental monitoring. The methodologies were tested in three regions of USA: Florida, Maryland, and California. The models were trained and tested on the first two, and their zero-shot capabilities were tested on the third, showing comparable results.